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http://www.indiancountry.com:80/content.cfm?id=1096416992
Interior grants
disbursed to conservation projects |
| April 08, 2008 Indian
Country Today |
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WASHINGTON - Secretary of the
Interior Department Dirk Kempthorne announced March 21 that
more than $6.2 million in grants will go to 38 American Indian
projects in 18 states to fund a wide range of conservation
projects nationwide.
''Tribal wildlife grants are much more than a fiscal resource
for tribes. The projects and partnerships supported by this
program have enhanced our commitment to Native Americans and
to the United States' shared wildlife resources,'' he said.
More than $34 million has gone to American Indian tribes
through the Tribal Wildlife Grants program in the past six
years, providing funding for 175 conservation projects
administered by 133 participating federally recognized tribes.
The grants provide technical and financial assistance for the
development and implementation of efforts that benefit fish
and wildlife resources and their habitat, including species
that are not hunted or fished.
''The Tribal Wildlife Grants program has helped the [U.S. Fish
and Wildlife] Service to collaborate more effectively with
Native American tribes in conserving and restoring the vast
diversity of fish and wildlife habitat that they manage,''
added Interior's Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and
Parks
Lyle Laverty.
The grants have enabled tribes to develop increased management
capacity; improve and enhance relationships with partners
including state agencies; address cultural and environmental
priorities; and heighten interest of tribal students in
fisheries, wildlife and related fields of study. Some grants
have been awarded to enhance recovery efforts for threatened
and endangered species.
The grants are provided exclusively to federally recognized
tribal governments, and are made possible under the Related
Agencies Appropriations Act of 2002 and through a component of
the State Wildlife Grant program.
During the current grant cycle, tribes submitted a total of
110 proposals that were scored by panels in each service
region using uniform ranking criteria. A national scoring
panel recommended 38 proposals for funding.
The grants cover a wide range of conservation projects,
including:
* A grant for $49,791 for the Band of Pomo Indians in
California for the Big Valley Rancheria Clear Lake Hitch Study
Project. The Clear Lake hitch is a culturally significant
native fish in Clear Lake. This multi-tribal effort will seek
to accelerate the recovery of this fish and to provide stock
to other streams in the
watershed.
* A grant of $62,604 to the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma will help
manage the tribe's Wildlife Conservation Area which, among
other things, includes the Grey Snow Eagle House (Bah Kho-Je
Xla Chi), the first federally funded eagle rehabilitation
facility in the United States. This facility cares for injured
eagles that cannot return to the wild, rehabilitates eagles
that are returned to the wild, and utilizes the eagles'
natural molting
process to provide eagle feathers for Native religious and
other ceremonies.
* A grant of $199,831 to the Confederated Tribes and Bands of
the Yakama Nation, located in Washington state, will help the
tribe improve management of overstressed meadow habitat on its
1.4-million-acre Yakama reservation in south-central
Washington. Meadows and wetlands in the managed forest occupy
slightly more than 8,600 acres and include many ecologically
and culturally important wildlife and plant species.
* The Lummi Nation of Washington state will receive a grant of
$200,000 to support endangered species recovery work in the
Nooksack River Basin. It will seek to restore degraded habitat
identified as limiting the production of bull trout,
steelhead, Chinook and other salmon.
* The Yurok Tribe of the Klamath River Reserve in northern
California will get a $200,000 grant to reintroduce California
condors to the Yurok ancestral territory. The condor is listed
as an endangered species by federal and state agencies.
2008 TRIBAL WILDLIFE GRANTS BY STATE
Alaska
Native Village of Tetlin: $198,396 for a moose management and
restoration project on Tetlin tribal lands
Aleut Community of St. Paul: $199,804 to establish the
long-term trends of winter sea ducks, gulls and beach-cast
birds on the Pribilof Islands
Sitka Tribe of Alaska: $180,316 for the stock identification
of Pacific Herring in Sitka Sound
Native Village of Chickaloon: $199,491 for the Matanuska
Watershed Salmon Habitat Restoration and Research Project
Alabama
Poarch Band of Creek Indians: $200,000 for the reintroduction
of gopher tortoises in restored longleaf pine habitat, and the
Red Cockaded Woodpecker Safe Harbor Agreement
Arizona
Colorado River Indian Tribes: $82,967 for a mesquite resource
assessment and the Mesquite/Wildlife Integrated Resource
Management Plan
California
Big Valley Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians: $49,791 for the Big
Valley Rancheria Clear Lake Hitch study
Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake: $48,498 for the Clear Lake
Hitch Study and Recovery Project
Karuk Tribe of California: $100,000 for the Bluff Creek
Habitat Protection Project
Yurok Tribe: $200,000 for the Yurok Tribe Condor Release
Initiative
Robinson Rancheria: $194,936 for the Clear Lake Hitch study
Florida
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians: $199,938 for the implementation
of the Miccosukee Fisheries Management Plan
Iowa
Sac and Fox Tribes of the Mississippi in Iowa (Meskwaki):
$195,195 for Meskwaki buffalo herd and prairie restoration
Idaho
Nez Perce Tribe: $200,000 for the restoration of bighorn sheep
and habitat along the Main Stem of the Salmon River
Idaho and Nevada
Shoshone Paiute Tribe - Duck Valley Reservation: $199,469 to
restore the habitat and monitor the impacts of West Nile Virus
on the Duck Valley Reservation's greater sage-grouse
population
Maine
Aroostook Band of Micmacs: $48,957 to the band's wildlife
habitat enhancement project
Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians: $114,645 for the aquatic
habitat study of the Meduxnekeag Watershed
Minnesota
Grand Portage Band of Chippewa Indians: $199,944 for Viral
Hemorrhagic Septicemia surveillance and detection in Grand
Portage Waters and within the 1854 Ceded Territory
Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe: $200,000 for the assessment of
double-crested cormorant predation effects on selected fish
species and colonial waterbird management on the Pelican
Island complex in Leech Lake
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians: $196,015 for gray wolf
inventory, monitoring, and management plan development
Montana
Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes: $197,000 for the restoration of
the swift fox on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and
northeastern Montana
Crow Tribe: $200,000 for the Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout
Conservation and Restoration Program
New Mexico
Mescalero Apache Tribe: $186,762 for a comprehensive habitat
inventory for the restoration of the Rio Grande cutthroat
trout on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation
Pueblo of Jemez: $196,836 for developing management plans for
critical species on Jemez Pueblo
Pueblo of Picuris: $199,941 to develop wildlife management
capabilities and baseline assessments for key species on the
Picuris Pueblo
Pueblo of Santa Clara: $199,785 for riparian wetland
restoration at the Black Mesa Oxbow
Nevada
Moapa Band of Paiute Indians: $65,397 for the Muddy River
Habitat Enhancement Project
Oklahoma
Iowa Tribe: $62,604 for the development of a comprehensive
management plan for the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma's Wildlife
Conservation Area
Oregon
Burns Paiute Tribe: $11,554 for the elimination of fish loss
within a Burns Paiute Tribe irrigation site
Rhode Island
Narragansett Indian Tribe: $199,931 for Indian Cedar Swamp
Brook riparian and wetland restoration
South Dakota
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe: $133,890 for black-footed ferret
habitat, recovery and monitoring
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe: $200,000 for research and management
for black-footed ferret and prairie dog populations; balancing
culture, conservation and conflict
Oglala Sioux Tribe: $200,000 for Kit Fox (Swift Fox) society
Washington
Cowlitz Tribe: $199,700 to establish a Cottonwood Island
sub-population of Columbia White-tailed Deer
Lummi Indian Nation: $200,000 for the South Fork of Skookum
Reach Restoration Project
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe: $168,745 to establish baseline
ecological information on the Indian and Elwha Valley elk
herds of the Olympic Peninsula
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation: $199,831
for the Meadow Habitat Restoration Project
Wisconsin
Stockbridge Munsee Community: $192,690 for the Stockbridge
Munsee Fish and Wildlife Project |
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